Secret Gaara
by SnoochieBoochie
Summary: The true life of Sabaku no Gaara, and his love that was forever kept secret but was always there throughout his entire life. OC Gaara


_AN/ ok i warm you, this is a VERY long story_

* * *

Again he sat alone, again venomous looks were cast at his direction, and again his heart beat painfully at his chest. No one paid attention to the monster of the sand village. Gaara sat on a little swing in the far corner of the school yard, red messy hair shining in the sunlight, his face as pale as usual and the dark marks around his light green eyes sat there from lack of sleep, and most curious the red tattoo on his forehead which read 'love'. 

The sand had always protected him from pain... but this pain it could never protect him from came from the words of the children. Although he didn't bleed on the outside, inside his heart still hurt.

A girl with long golden hair walked into the courtyard. The majority of the kids turned and looked at her. Like Gaara she looked like she was 6. She had long waving long hair that seemed to dance in the sandy winds. From the distance between them Gaara could still see her startling yellow and orange eyes sparkling behind her curtain of hair. She was alone, usually when a new kid comes to the school a parent or family member accompanies them, but she only had a teacher.

Some of the kids started to point others to laugh. She was dressed weirdly compared to the other kids. They wore brown and white clothing mainly but she walked in with a bright blue t-shirt and dark blue loose pants.

The teacher left her there and walked inside for a moment she stood there alone with her right arm holding her left in front of her. Laughter filled her ears and caused her to look up and see the girls laughing at her. Gaara cringed as though the blow had been dealt to him.

She walked away from the groups of people and went a one of the few trees in the courtyard and just sat under it. She faced the wall boundaries to the school, her arms hugging her legs close to her. Just staring off into space.

Hope sprung inside Gaara, finally someone was here, someone who new his pain, but didn't no he was a monster. He stood to walk towards her, to talk to her, his teddy bear close at hand. He started to walk towards the tree were she sat. He could see people from the corner of his eyes shoot scared looks at him, the girl and then to their friends. He was only a little way away from the pretty girl when a large bell rang and she sprung to her feet and ran towards the school building.

In his ninja classes he paid a lot of attention to the girl, his eyes almost always on her, he'd found that even in class rooms when no breezes were around her hair still seemed to dance on a breeze that was only there for her. She had come from the village hidden in the leaves, Konoha, and was only here for a short period of time.

In classes she did as she was told without fail. She was an excellent ninja but didn't talk much, and was teased a lot by the classmates. But every time he went to talk to her either his courage would fail or someone would interrupt.

After a week that seemed to last forever he gave up hope that he could be-friend her or that she would notice him. He admired her from a distance, but stopped trying to make contact.

………………………….

One day 2 weeks after the girl had arrived, Gaara sat on the swing in the far corner of the courtyard during recess. He sat holding his teddy close to him; it was one of the only things that would be close to him. He saw her under her tree as usual but this time there were a group of 3 girls around her. He figured that she had made friends and looked back towards his teddy.

A loud cry. He spun to look back at her. Two of the girls were taller than her and held her up by the shoulders on her tree, pinning her were her feet couldn't touch the ground. The centre girl had plain black hair and plain grey eyes stood in front of her fist clenched. The girls had taken the new girl around to the other side of the tree so the hole courtyard could see.

Gaara was horrified to see the girl in front, who'd called him a monster so many times, punch the beautiful girl in the mouth again. Gaara now stood in front of his swing fists clenched as her saw the girl spit a large amount of blood on the sand.

The whole courtyard had started towards the tree including Gaara. Usually people would scream and run away from him, but now he was not what they all wanted to see. He was small, as most 6 year olds so he made his way to the front fairly quickly. As he arrived he saw her glistening hair, almost blinding, and those shimmering yellow-orange eyes burnt like fire yet seemed so innocent. Her soft pink lips now darkened red, sprayed with her blood. The plain girl again raised her hand to hit her.

'NO!' Gaara cried. Half the school was either muttering or egging her on so no-one herd the little boy. But Shikaku did. Her fist came crashing down Gaara's heart pounding. He closed his eyes and heard a howling cry of pain. But not the golden haired girl. He snapped his eyes open and saw a wall of sand around the new girl, and the bully had hit it. That was Gaara's wall of sand. The bully broke her wrist and started to cry, her friends dropped the girl and ran to her side. Everyone started to notice Gaara, and stumbled away as fast as their feet could carry them. The girl looked at Gaara venomously and sprinted off towards the school tears flowing from her eyes.

His wall was slowly lowered and he lifted his hand and dropped it again, the sand following his hand. The girl sat on the ground were she'd been dropped watching the sand that had protected her slowly trickle down to the ground. Once it was nothing but ordinary sand again she looked up at Gaara who stood there looking at the pile to. He'd never protected anyone with the wall except for himself.

Shakily she got to her feet, taking in the hair the eyes and the red tattoo on his face. And to Gaara's surprise she smiled and threw her arms around him.

Shikaku, the sand spirit that was placed in side him at birth, had always protected him, from physical pain, and from harmful touch. He actually expected him to send the barrier up around himself to stop the girl but it didn't. Her small warm body wrapped her small arms around his neck and she paced her head on her arms.

For what seemed like an eternity to her he to moved his arms to her back and hugged her back. She smiled to herself, eyes tightly shut. She finally had a friend! After all that time in Konoha people looking down weirdly at her clan. But she never understood why, there were the Hyuuga clan could see through walls, and the Uchiha clan who could copy people's movements. Her clan could control air and chakra without jutsu what they could control was basically forces, a lot like telekinesis. But the reason Konoha looked at her clan so was because of their power, they did not use it to be ninjas. They would have been great ninjas but few did, she was one of the first to become one. Her family trained to use their power for construction and other tasks, but this was how she had decided to use he abilities.

Had she been more experienced she could have defended herself from the bully, but she was barely starting to learn to use her Kaki-Genkai.

She pulled away from this boy who had saved her, his shiny red hair seemed to be like flames, and his eyes so softly green. How could she have not notice him before! She blushed at noticing shed just spent all that time staring at him she looked away and asked shyly, "What's your name?"

Such a simple question startled Gaara for a moment he didn't answer, no one had asked his name without calling him a monster. Without an answer she shot her gaze up to his. "Ga-Gaa-Gaar-Gaara...???" he asked as though he asked her his name.

It amused her and she burst out laughing, it was a nice name but she really thought that he asked her his name!

Her smile was warm and not accusing like the ones that were shot at him mischievously by his classmates. He smiled with her almost without knowing. "Well you know mine now what's yours?" he spoke with a soft kind of voice. She looked at him and spoke as though if she spoke to loudly her would run away. Softly she said in a little more than a whisper. "Shigure, my name is Shigure."

The bell for the school period started and she grabbed Gaara's hand and started running towards the building like she always did but now with her new friend.

………………….

For the next six months Gaara and Shigure did everything together, trained as ninjas (although Gaara didn't need to,) he did so he could spend more time with Shigure. They were the best students in their classes. Gaara started to learn to control Shikaku to some extent, and Shigure started to learn her Kaki-Genkai. Apparently it was a form of do-jutsu her startling fiery eyes contained it. Hand movements controlled and manipulated it but there were no need for hand signs and jutsu's, if she raised her hands while using her Kaki-Genkai in her Chakra, then the force or chakra would follow them. She had also found out that her clan had a form of telepathy. They could more or less sense Chakra around them, and sometimes link into the mind, if ones power was strong enough.

After six months they were the best of friends and happier than they'd ever been. But Shigure's dads job had finished. He was helping construct the Kazekage's palace. And now they were going to head back to Konoha.

When her father told her of this she ran. After six months her hair had got longer and she wore it in a braid at the back. Her legs were slightly longer and her powers much stronger. She opened her mind to find Gaara, after a few seconds she felt his and Shikaku's power just north of the school. She followed it until she saw walking from a park into the boundaries of the palace were he lived with his father the Kazekage. She ran to him as fats as she could and tripped over a few feet in front of her.

She raised her hands to stop her fall, a few inches from the ground she levitated for a moment. She found her feet and stood. Gaara had started to run towards her. She looked at him, tears streaming down her face. And as soon as her reached her she threw her arms around him. He'd grown a few inches taller than her but she still hugged him.

She held him in her arms as he held her. They had spent so much time together. They'd spent their 7th birthdays together and loved each other's company. A pain in her chest rose painfully and she feared would never go. She had to leave him, his protective arms and his kind soul. She wept in his arm for so long.

Eventually he pulled her back but still held her. "Shigure what's wrong?" he asked.

She dried her eyes and took many breaths to calm herself. She looked at him and told him. That she was leaving for Konoha and had no idea is she'd see him again. Tears started to muffle her voice again. Her cheeks were so wet, as though a storm had started but only rained on her.

As she spoke Gaara felt as though his chest had shrunk painfully. As she told him what was happening his gaze left hers and looked over her shoulders without seeing. He listened to her intently as she started to become hard to hear and sobs started to make her stutter. When she was done tears of his own ran down his cheeks, he pulled her close to him so she could again buried her face in his shirt. And squeezed her tightly he held her again tears running down his own cheeks.

After what felt like the smallest amount of time, Shigure's father came to the palace his daughter spent so much time with that red haired boy, there was no doubt she would be there. As he walked into the boundaries around the palace she saw her daughter, gold hair buried in the arms of the red haired kid, the Kazekage's son.

He held her close to him his hands around her back and hair. If they weren't 7 he would have thought something was up, but the ages, he figured that she didn't want to leave her friend. All seven year olds acted like that to their friends so he dismissed anything fishy.

He walked up to the pair. He reached his daughter and the Kazekage kid. Gaara stood to the older mans belly button approximately and his Shigure at his hip. He knelt down so he didn't tower over the two. He bowed his head to the boy to show his respect to the title Gaara had, and then turned to his daughter. " We must go Shigure," he said as kindly as he could. She looked up from her sanctuary into her father's eyes; her soft fiery eyes were glistening and puffy. The boys shirt had a massive wet patch were her face had been. For a moment her eyes were dry, but seconds after her face left the boys shirt her cheeks were again dripping with tears.

He took his daughter softly and lifted her into his arm and stood. She looked at Gaara crying, '_think Shigure think!!!'_ She cried to herself, what could she say to make him remember her? She was about get out of ears reach. He watched her with sad eyes, tears still cascading from his gentle eyes. As a final attempt at something to say she yelled with as much composure as possible "please, never forget me Gaara!!! I love you!!!"

He stood there watching her get taken away, he didn't want to look away, this might be the last time he saw her, he watched her search for word and just as she walked through the boundaries of the palace she called out to him "_please, never forget me Gaara!!! I love you!!!"_ his mouth gaped open; she sounded as though she stood next to him. Someone loved him. And she meant it; it wasn't a lie like his uncle. And he would never forget her. She smiled at him, and closed her eyes, he felt her again in front of him. But he saw her far away in front of him. He felt her soft lips brush his cheeks and kiss him, he looked at her, the real her, her eyes closed and her lips slightly pushed were her Chakra had kissed him. He looked to were her felt the kiss and brushed the air in front of him until he felt were her chakra was. He put his hand on her cheek once he'd found it and kissed her on the forehead. After a few seconds the force lifted and he looked to the distant figure of Shigure and smiled. He loved her too, and would never forget her

………………

As the years passed neither forgot each other, Gaara stuck to telling everyone his vow. That 'he fights for himself, and loves only himself, that that was the only love he needed'. His father made many attempts on his life and slowly he started becoming 'unstable' in a way. And he was cold to everyone. He killed without a second thought, and became the strongest ninja in the hidden sand village, the Kazekage's secret weapon, and by killing he felt alive. But the truth was no matter what happened even though his mind slowly became unstable he always felt either the warmth of Shigure and their time together, or the harsh coldness of not having her around anymore.

In Konoha Shigure didn't make new friends, she was cold to nearly everyone, she was strong but wasn't the strongest, well that's what they thought, she never showed her instructors what she could really do. She was an excellent ninja; no one noticed her because she was quiet. She didn't speak to many people, but she was polite when they did speak to her. But she never made any close contacts. She always felt empty without Gaara. True the Uzamaki kid was funny, and the Uchiha kid was mysterious and attractive. But she never paid any attention to them. She sat at the back of her classes and did her work.

For 6 years they both spent their time like this. Gaara had killed many for his father, and now was time for more killing. The Chuunin exam was to be held in Konoha. Konoha of all places! He didn't know if she would be there though, so he kept his mind on his mission.

Shigure herd of the Chuunin exam and her heart lifted when they said Gennin from the sand village were coming. But dropped when she realized, that Gaara wouldn't be a Gennin still, he was decently a Chuunin maybe even Jonnin. She returned to her training. She'd made Chuunin in the test 6 months ago.

Since she had come back from The hidden sand village she'd changes allot, her golden hair became silver, her eyes still fiery, but more fierce and held more red in the yellow and orange, she grew taller and had a good body. She was thin with long legs and a good-sized chest. She now wore instead of her blue clothes long dark jeans and a black sleeveless top that covered her chest and stomach. Over the top of it she was the netted training shirt. She was beautiful, but quiet so few noticed her, she liked it like that. Her kunai and shuriken's were held in containers on her legs and her ninja forehead protected was tied around her arm.

The contestants for the Chuunin exam arrived from the other villages, some of her old classmates were going to be in the exam. Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, Hinata and so on, nearly every one in her old class in the academy, she had become Chuunin early because one of her teachers saw her practicing in the forest. So he saw that she could do a lot more than she let on and recommended her for the exam.

The contest started and for a wile she had so many things to do, she was doing extra missions because of the lack of Jonnin running the exam and Gennin participating in it. After a month or so the finals had started all 4 girls from Konoha had failed and so had lee. He was badly injured by a sand ninja and could barely walk, word was he could never fight again.

She knew lee, he was a powerful ninja what kind of ninja could do that? She wondered as she walked to the stadium were the finals were to be held.

She found her way up to the stands. It was interesting. Naruto was really late and she couldn't see from how high she was but there were some weird looking people down there. Immediately she saw a guy with bright red hair. '_Don't be sill it wont be him. He probability isn't even from the sand village anyway, it wont be Gaara.' S_he said to herself with a certain amount of certainty though she wished she wasn't so sure, she could only see a large gourd and his hair anyway.

The fight between Neji and Naruto lasted a long time and Naruto won to her surprise. A fight was delayed, then a person from the sand village named Kunkuro forfeited against Shino. A boring match ended with Shikamaru and some girl from the sand village named Temari.

The village hidden in the sand's Kazekage, Gaara's father, was sitting with the Hokage from the hidden leaf village in the middle of the three stands watching the fights. It was so boring, there was meant to be a big fight with a guy from the sand village and Sasuke, now that she was slightly interested in. she assumed that was why the Kazekage was here, to watch the ninja who had maimed Lee fight again. At the end Kakashi Sensei and Sasuke arrived. The announcer called "Now with be the fight between Uchiha Sasuke and Sabaku no Gaara will commence."

Her face dropped, 'Ga-Gaa-Gaara?' she almost screamed out loud, and she sounded an awful lot like Gaara the first time they met. She could see vaguely Sakura and Ino start to relax and become cheery amongst themselves. She politely asked to borrow the guy next to hers binoculars. He handed them over when she gave him a nice little smile. She threw them to her eyes, and watched the door were Gaara would come from. She could see it perfectly. Out came the boy with red hair she'd seen at the beginning. He was tall, he still had his red shiny hair, like flames on his head, the dark lines around his eyes were more pronounced, his tattoo on his forehead still stood. His clothes had changed to black, it looked like a once pieced outfit but she was sure it wasn't, he wore a white scarf around his shoulder and a massive gourd on his back, tied to him with a red scarf, he looked murderous, Shikaku had taken his toll on Gaara she thought sadly. He hunched with anticipation to the fight, we was clearly ecstatic. His pale skin seemed to call to her. She removed the binoculars as he walked towards Sasuke and gave them back to the man beside her.

The match started and instantly sand poured from the gourd on his back, she watched everything she could, she admired Gaara's technique, he was so talented, but Sasuke had found his weakness, speed. If he ran fast enough Shikaku couldn't keep up. '_Dam that raccoon',_ she thought venomously as she saw Gaara get hit again and again. She used all her might to prevent herself from jumping down into the arena and punching Sasuke and protecting Gaara, and even more so to stop herself from using her Kakai Genkai and hitting him from her chair.

Gaara summoned his ultimate defence and people stared whooping, this is the kind of thing they wanted, a hard out battle. Sasuke hit the barrier with all his might and spikes sprung out at the same time as his fist hit it. He bled and jumped backwards.

'_The ultimate defence has always been impenetrable'_. After a few different things, Sasuke ran up one of the walls. He summoned electricity? She herd Gai Sensei telling Sakura and Ino it was called 'chidori' she watched in wonder. '_They don't call it impenetrable for nothing Sasuke'. _She thought mockingly with a sly smile. Gaara would kill this boy. He ran down the electricity made a weird chirping noise, like a bird. He ran to the defensive sphere and dodged the spikes '_not bad' _she thought, the chidori reached the barrier and his hand went through, '_it went through?!'_ She thought, unable to believe it as her face dropped.

Her heart broke. A massive scream of pain came from inside the dome. He screamed, she could even feel it inside her, her pain so immense, "Blood it's my blood!" the sound echoed throughout the stands. Again Sasuke summoned the chidori while his hand was inside the dome, '_but was he still touching Gaara?' she asked herself desperately, _he pulled out his arm, and with it followed by another arm, an inhuman arm, one made from sand, the arm of Shikaku.

Sasuke stood staring at the hole he made, staring at what no one else could.

He was injured, badly. Everyone was watching the fight intently no one noticed Shigure start crying. The sphere shaped dome that had been used to protect Gaara cracked all around, then slithered and seethed to the ground.

In the middle she could see Gaara standing there holding his shoulder, his blood was all too visible. Tears stung at Shigure's eyes as her vision began to blur and she began to feel tired, she felt a sleeping jutsu and dispelled it with an annoyed "kai!" and continued to watch Gaara. She opened her mind. Her mind shot passed the spectators in the stands high about the battle arena, her eyes moving like fires with the activation of her Kakai-Genkai, and then she came shooting down. She felt Gaara, week and bleeding badly, his chakra low.

He stood glaring at Sasuke who was obviously stunned and no doubting had seen Shikaku.

The blond girl Temari (who had beaten Shikamaru by default) and Kunkuro (who had for fitted his match against Shino) were standing in front of Gaara, his teammates? Gaara started shaking and clutching his head. '_Fuck Shikaku please leave him' _she thought bitterly, without even noticing she'd risen to her feet. Gaara's Sensei came down and was also talking to the teens. Gaara fell to his knees. Shigure had jumped on to the chair in front of her only 4 seats away from Sakura and the other girls. Gaara was hoisted to Kunkuro's shoulder. Temari and Kunkuro carried the now unconscious Gaara over the wall, soon closely followed by Sasuke.

She hadn't noticed the ninjas starting to attack Kakashi or Gai nor the smoke bomb that went off at the Hokage's stand. As soon as Sasuke had left after them she was close behind.

She didn't seem to realize that she was chasing her enemy and willing to attack someone from her village to protect him. As she ran she lifted a pack of kunai from a dead Konoha ninja and strapped it to her own leg and kept running after Sasuke and Gaara.

Randomly a ninja from the sand would attack her. She would simply through the kunai and guide them with her chakra, not once did she miss. When a ninja from her own town attacked her that didn't recognize her she would just guide their kunai away from her and into an opposing villagers body, then continue after Gaara's chakra, witch she hadn't let her leave her minds kaki-Genkai.

Soon she was in the forest following Gaara with a lot more accuracy then Sasuke seemed to be. Soon she was right behind them.

She leapt through the trees as fast as she could. And jumped into view behind them. Kunkuro carrying the unconscious Gaara and Temari turned and faced her. Her eyes fell upon Gaara for the first time properly in such a long time. She stood there, in such pain to see him there. Staring into his closed eyes and trying to fix any damage she could with her kaki-genkai, speeding the healing and locking Shikaku behind a barrier only Gaara could break through easily, it would only last a little while though. She didn't notice Temari. Temari lifted her fan and swooped it at her in one powerful stroke. The air cut her face and chest and sent her flying backwards, away from Gaara as she lost her connection. She was sent crashing into a tree closely followed by Temari who jumped down in front of her. She could feel warm blood trickle down her cheeks and lips. Her arms and legs were no doubting cut.

Temari lifted a kunai from her weapons pouch and lifted Shigure's neck up to cut her throat. " Stop" she heard someone call. Was Gaara healed already? She thought hopefully looking towards the voice, "we need to get Gaara out of here don't kill her!" the voice called, Kunkuro's voice. She looked down. '_His injuries are severe he wont be healed yet', S_he said sadly to herself.

Kunkuro jumped to a tree above her she looked up again. It hurt all her injuries but she had to see Gaara. Temari dropped the kunai and jumped up to Gaara and Kunkuro. "She is pretty" said Kunkuro looking at the bloody mess that was Shigure. She swore she saw Gaara's eyes open and look at her, but Temari threw something and she was knocked unconscious

……………

Minutes maybe hours passed, hey she could have thought even days. But she opened her eyes. Her wounds were dried but still bloody. With resistance from her arms she examined herself. She had a busted lip; a deep cut on her cheek, and her eyebrow was bleeding and she had a dried patch of blood on her hairline from whatever Temari used to knock her out. Her back was bruised but only from landing on the tree, her arms had cuts all along them, quite a few just missing her main arteries. She thanked something; she wasn't sure what because she never believed in a divine spirit. But she thanked something none the less.

She stood surprisingly well, her legs weren't that injured. She leaped to the top of the trees to see were she was.

Her mouth gaped open instantly, a mile away, maybe two she couldn't tell, was Shikaku in his full form and the, the, the... nine tailed fox? '_No, the nine tailed fox died with the forth Hokage 13 years ago'_. Well what was fighting Shikaku? '_Wait... Shikaku?' _She thought still gapping at the tremendous fight "GAARA!!!" she cried as she leapt several feet forward when she saw the nine tailed fox turn into a giant frog.

She stopped dead in her tracks. What on earth was going on? After a wile Shikaku and the frog disappeared. This seamed to snap her back to reality as she saw a little yellow and orange speck and a red and black one go crashing to the floor. "Gaara_" _she whispered to herself again as she shot off towards the smoke coming from were he had landed.

After what seemed like an eternity of running without being able to see properly trough tears, '_why tears I never cry!' _She finally reached were she'd seen Gaara fall. Sasuke was helping Naruto up but Gaara was no were to be seen.

Sasuke jumped into the trees and headed off in the opposite direction to Shigure. She opened her Chakra to be pulled to her knee's, she was running on hardly any chakra, if she wanted to get back to the village she'd had to run, fast.

And so she did. She ran all the way back to Konoha and collapsed in the gates of the city.

After the fight, Kunkuro and Temari carried Gaara back towards the hidden sand village to be healed. But he'd seen her. He was sure of it. Briefly he had strength to open his eyes, he saw her. Temari towering over her, the little girl, 7 years old with cuts on her face crying. Looking up at him he couldn't help, he'd trained so he could be strong and protect her, but he couldn't do anything for her. But he knew this was a dream, or a delusion. He'd often daydreamed about her, Shigure, but she was probably on a mission, or in some other town, or even dead. And it couldn't have been her, because she wouldn't have been 7 still.

Temari interrupted his train of thought. "I didn't think they'd send that week girl after us. Sasuke was understandable but that other girl just stood there staring at Gaara. It was pathetic."

He looked up at her. She was talking to herself, Kunkuro was exhausted from his fight, Temari wouldn't be quiet though, and now he was thankful. "What girl?" he demanded weakly, listening to her with undivided attention.

She looked at Gaara slightly scared, like she always did but gave in, "This girl she came up behind us, so I attacked her, would have killed her," Gaara stiffened at these words "if it wasn't been for Kunkuro that is." she finished and they both sighed.

With all the strength he could muster he asked for details about her. This time not only Temari but also Kunkuro told him about her. Her long silvery hair tied back in a braid, her dangerously red burning eyes and her clothing, which was given in a detailed description by Kunkuro with a large smile of reminiscence on his face.

It sounded like her, how she would turn out to be, beautiful. But now their villages were enemies, and who would know how long this war would last.

He felt like crying, or the first time since he'd gotten over her leaving. He actually wanted to either cry or die. Either would suite him perfectly. He had to find her, to talk to her. _'Please, never forget me Gaara!!! I love you!!!' _he could still hear her voice, he always could. That voice got him up in the mornings, that voice gave him strength. Made him smile when people called him a monster and brought him back to sanity when all he wanted to do was kill.

What if she didn't remember him though? 'G_irl just stood there staring at Gaara.' _That's what Temari had said. She would have had to remember him if she was staring at him.

He closed his eyes. He was so low on Chakra but all he wanted to do was run back to the village to her. He felt a throbbing in his chest, a painful throbbing more pain then from Sasuke's electric hit. But it wasn't from his wound.

……………………..

Days turned into weeks. And both Shigure and Gaara lay unconscious in the beds in the hospitals of their village. Gaara was healing fast but his wound was deep. Shigure was injured not as badly but she used a lot of Chakra. After the 9th day they both woke up.

They woke up simultaneously, miles apart. The image of each other burned into their eyes. Gaara saw the little girl staring up at him helplessly wile Gaara stood unable to help, or move. Shigure saw Gaara, menacingly smiling up at Sasuke, then the helpless form being held up by Kunkuro only a slither of his eyes cold be seen looking down at her.

Shigure stood and walked to the window, soon followed by Gaara who walked to the door of his hospital room.

Shigure looked over Konoha, her home being rebuilt but with no sand ninjas around. Were they all dead? Did Gaara die? Despite her relief for her hometown she couldn't help but pray for the safety of Gaara.

He stood facing the door. He was alive, but did everyone in Konoha die? Did they complete the mission without him? Or did something happen to make them retreat. That kid he fought was strong. Was it because of him that it all ended? He looked down to his feet sorrow pressing against him like an iron fist. He clutched his heart and walked to the gourd next to his bed were his sand rested.

She tried to fight off tears at the thought that she couldn't help him. Silently one single tear fell down her smooth skin.

"He-hem" someone cleared his or her throat behind her. She spun around to look at the impostor. "I'm sorry to interrupt you said the timid young nurse. She laid down a plate of ramen next to her bed. "Its terrible what they did. Lucky they retreated." she said sadly.

"What happened?" Shigure asked, there was something that had happened that she didn't know about.

The young girl looked up tears in her eyes. "He died," she spoke with a dry throat.

'_She can't be talking about Gaara! No one knows about us!'_ She screamed to herself.

"It wasn't the Kazekage there with Hokage-Sama on the day of the exam, it was an Orochimaru. He killed him. When the people from the sand found out, they re-instated the treaty between us and swore a vengeance on Orochimaru. He's killed their Kazekage to take the form of him." The young nurse ended and ran out of the room tears spilling from her brown eyes.

Shigure looked to the ground. She'd been so busy with looking for Gaara she'd forgotten about her town. She walked to her food and ate it with increased enthusiasm. It was a lot but didn't fill her. She closed her eyes, hoping that she'd have enough Chakra to attempt such a feat. At the moment she didn't care what happened to her. She sat on the bed and closed her eyes in meditation.

She opened her Chakra and slowly reached out of the town. She had to find him. She'd never tried somewhere so far away but she had to know he was OK. She reached beyond Konoha without difficulty, then beyond the forest surrounding it. She felt her range thinning. She lowered her range to a thin line and shot straight through all the obstacles. She finally reached the sand village. Her Chakra was low but she widened her range and felt for his presence. She felt it in the hospital. '_No, no please be OK!' _She cried to herself.

She found him in a room '_not a morgue!' _She felt him, and then slightly saw him. He was standing next to his gourd, just staring. There was Shikaku in the gourd. She smiled he was well. She softly tapped into his mind and whispered to him. "It'll be OK, remember not to forget me," it was all she could think of before being rudely interrupted by a nurse. She fell back to her hospital bed. A new nurse was standing over her.

She looked at the nurse with the most venomous look she could muster, "please don't over exert yourself mistress." She spoke with a lot more confidence than the other nurse. She silently handed ate the food given to her by the new nurse and fell back asleep.

Gaara looked at his gourd lost in thought. He felt someone looking at him; he turned to the door and heard a soft, weak voice. Instead of having someone standing in front of him, he felt a soft body touching him; no one was there though. "It'll be OK, remember not to forget me," whispered a soft voice from the body he felt. Then nothing, no voice no body he was alone in his hospital room. '_Shigure. She's OK'. _He smiled to himself, for the first time in a long time, not with the joy of the kill or the fight, but with just joy.

A knock on the door brought him from his joy. He rearranged his features to be neutral, as they always were, "come in." he said with a plain voice. A sturdy senior doctor walked in. her old face lined with wrinkled and her grey hair tied back in a tight bun at the back of her head. She walked in. for someone who was senior doctor and supposed to be very harsh, she watched all her movements and was very careful around Gaara. She came in and laid a large plate of roasted meat and vegetables on his bedside table. And walked slowly towards Gaara.

"Please s-sit down.? she said quite composed for how scared she looked. He obliged and sat down n the bed looking her in the eyes. They shifted from his to the food to the bandages several times. She muttered that she needed to change his bandages.

He reluctantly lifted his shirt off his body. It revealed a nice body. It was pale but it was slightly muscular, not as much as normal ninjas because he didn't need all the training. She removed the bloody bandages from his chest, opening them slightly, then cleaned them and did a quick but sturdy re bandaging with her clean bandages. She gave a curt nod and walked out of the room, soon followed by Gaara.

………………..

Months passed and Shigure didn't hear form Gaara. She went on many missions. But this time it was less trivial; it was going to be hard. She spent the majority of the fight against the rouge sound ninja protecting her teammates. Whilst in hand to hand combat several times she would have to jump away to press a shield up against a easy target of a team mate.

She threw kunai randomly and guided them with her kaki-genkai, but unfortunately her Chakra was wavering and the sound-nin had the advantage. She was cornered on a rock face. 3 of the 5 sound ninjas were blocking her escape. The only way was up or down and she wasn't that great at going underground like Naruto. So she used her Chakra and sent kunai flying as a distraction. With there sound abilities they knocked them away quite easily.

She pushed herself up with the air she used to control her kaki-genkai and push herself over their heads. She threw a hand full of shuriken's and killed two of them. She'd already killed 4 of the ninjas and spent most her time saving her comrades.

She shot a hand full of shuriken's into one of the ninjas attacking one of her team mates and then flipped forwards at the unsuspecting sound ninja and kicked him in the nose, sending the cartilage in his nose into his brain.

The remaining female sand ninja threw two shuriken's at Shigure witch were kicked slightly off path buy the hidden leaf ninja but only managed to stop her from dealing a critical hit. She was hit below the shoulder and on the shoulder blade. Shigure's teammate stabbed the sound ninja in the throat and killed her.

The blow to Shigure surprised her. She went tumbling forwards and hit her head on the rock face she was just recently cornered in. she fell to her knee's blood dripping down the side of her face, then to the ground unconscious.

Her teammates hurried to her side. One was bleeding badly from the side of his face, half the skin grazed. The other had a deep wound to the side of her arm and many small cuts that would have been fatal had it not been for Shigure.

After that fight there was no way they would leave the girl who saved the here to bleed to death. The boy lifted her in front of him, like a husband would his wife. The girl picked up the scroll that had been there mission and followed close behind the boy.

After what seemed like hours of running threw woods and mountains they finally reached Konoha.

Finally Konoha had a new Hokage. She was good, really strong and an excellent doctor so they would go straight to Tsunade-sama. They headed towards the hospital, no longer running with excellent ninja speed but jogging still. Neither new how to dress wounds so they'd all lost a lot of blood. But soon enough they reached the hospital.

Gaara had been sent to Konoha on a good faith mission as it were. Someone had gone missing and he and his brother and sister, Kunkuro and Temari had to go and help some Konoha ninjas. Trivial and dull, but it was Konoha and he was sure that Shigure would be there. When he first arrived there he was briefed by there new Hokage Tsunade-sama and was sent away straight away.

He finished his mission in a couple of hours and went back to the village. They didn't leave straight away they were given time to recover their strength etc. but that didn't matter, but it gave Gaara time to look for her. He walked the streets searching. Occasionally asking old people that wouldn't fear him, or know what he'd done. Eventually someone told him about a girl who fitted her description. Her father had died 3 years ago and her mother had withered shortly after his death. She had a 4-year-old brother but that was all. She hadn't been seen lately so the old man assumed that she'd gone on a mission. The problem was that he was leaving for the hidden sand village in 2 days time. And who knew when she'd be back.

She woke up, her mind wondering around with restlessness. She pulled herself together and sat up. The holes in her back healed well and she felt great. But why was she in Konoha hospital? Did her good-for-nothing useless team-mates bring her back? Whatever had happened she was healed now, that was all that mattered.

She stood up and changed out of her hospital clothes into her black tube shirt, her netted training shirt and her long jeans. She fixed her hair into her usual braid and ate the food that was set beside her bed, and left the depressing room.

She signed herself out of the hospital and started walking around Konoha. She moved along the streets her head facing forwards just simply thinking. Not about anything in particular she just felt like thinking, letting her mind wander. So she did, she opened her mind, even since Gaara had come she opened her mind a lot more. She often opened her mind these days, it started just to sense if Gaara was around, now she just enjoyed the feeling.

She looked out towards the forest that surrounded Konoha and walked towards it. She loved sitting in the tree's just enjoying the peace and quiet.

She felt something. Just briefly a really strong Chakra move by her it didn't feel like Naruto though. She was one of the few that new about the Chakra that Naruto had before anyone else. She could always feel his; it almost blinded her from others. But this was different. She tuned her head, but the street was full and could only see a mixture of brown, blond, black and red hair.

This Chakra though was so powerful. Shed only felt Naruto and Gaara have such Chakra before. She opened her mind a little further to try and see who it was. There were so many people around and so lose together it seemed like just only one big puddle of chakra she looked away and continued towards the forest.

As she walked she closed her mind. All the power around her was unnerving. After 10 minutes she reached the city doors. She walked through the usual path and into the forest.

He was walking down the street trying to find the place the old man had said she lived. Maybe she would be at home and he could see her again before he left. Maybe. '_Am I crazy? I've spent 2hole days looking for her and I have to leave tomorrow!' _He cursed at himself and looked to the ground, he hated looking people in the eyes. There were a lot of people in the road, it must have been a market of some sort most of the people were off to the sides. He sped up his pace, he was going to cut across the girl in front of him and go through an ally instead of this crowd.

He sped up his pace and lifted his eyes from his feet and stepped in front of her. Her head snapped up and turned to the side and looked around. Her searching red eyes '_Red eyes?' _He turned to look at her again. She was standing in the middle of the street looking around. He was slowly getting pushed away the crowd had just decided to move from the stalls. But she started walking away again.

Kunkuro was right. Her sparkling silver hair shone in the sunlight, like a moon of the day. And her eyes were as bright as the fires of the sun! She was beautiful in so many ways.

After the shortest period of time he was pushed into the ally were he was heading and she was no were to be seen. Without moving his sand sprung from its holding place and followed Gaara's silent instruction.

It fell to the floor a puddle of sand. Gaara stepped onto in and sat on his knees. Without need of commands it lifted to the sky and soared over the crowd.

In the sunlight so many people's hair looked silvery. After just a few seconds he had kids pointing up at him and showing their parents and friends, he sighed and continued faster. '_She has her hair in a braid. That might help_'. He lowered his search to slivery braided hair. He searched everyone he could see he didn't want to miss her again! Her flew around the crowd three times. Slowly widening his range.

He soared off towards the city gates, they were close he could watch from there. So he sped off and landed on top of the city gate. He sat his feet over the edge and searched the faces of those in front and below him. He thought he'd seen her but when he looked again, no one was below him after half an hour he realized she would be gone by now. The pain he held in his chest seemed to grow. She had been so close but he let her slip through his fingers, again. He turned towards the forest and jumped down from his large look out point. His sand came crashing down under his feet before he was even half way down. It carefully placed him on the ground. He looked out along the forests it was so much nicer and cleaner than in the sand village. Just the simplicity and the beauty of the trees always seemed to calm him.

She walked into the forest happy to be out of that crowd she jumped up into the trees and ran just out of sight from the people leaving and entering the village. She found her usual seat. A long thick branch a little way away from the village and sat in the comfortable grove she always did.

She opened her mind and just relaxed in the feel of the life of the tree's around her and the animals and insects that scattered themselves around the forest, it was so relaxing. She'd forgotten totally about the strong Chakra she'd felt and just sat with the light that shone threw the leaves warming her just enough for comfort. She closed her eyes, her mind wondering and dozed off. She was at peace so much. She was barely conscious of what she was doing, because all she was doing was sitting there. Her mind opened to just along the forest in front of the village and further on her other side.

For ages she sat there just enjoying the peace, she found it so much easier to let her mind wonder these days, it was easier than trapping it inside herself. She lazily scanned the trees and animals on the edges of the forest but there was something just out of her view. She stirred and widened her range. Just a little more it was probability just a villager looking into the forests. She was about to dismiss it when the person turned and she felt the Chakra again. She stopped her mind wondering and focused on the one person, a man, she now knew and felt a powerful gourd on his back. _A gourd! _She almost cried out. And inside was Shikaku, she didn't notice before, he was so much more controlled and powerful now. But he was leaving, back into the large crowd; she'd never find him there! She leapt to her feet and with one swift motion ran towards the village.

She never could remember running any faster. She even pushed with her power to make her move faster. She was at the edge of the forest within no time but he was almost in the crowd. She dove to the ground behind him. She felt Shikaku about to block her and put up his automatic defences but she pushed with all her telekinesis powers and all of her might against them.

Gaara started to turn at the sudden change in Shikaku and turned in time to feel soft warm arms be thrown around him. He fell backwards straight away only his sand stopping him from hitting the ground. She even knocked the wind out of him.

She had jumped from the trees into him arms almost simultaneously so she still had all he force of her hug. She wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could. She felt him, _HIM! _He was here in her arms after so many years of waiting.

He looked down in shock, '_who on earth?' _He screamed in his head. But as he looked down he saw silvery hair, silvery? Below the hair she was wearing her black sleeveless shirt and netted training shirt and jeans, just like Kunkuro had said.

She looked up at him, her red eyes seamed to be alight and moving as if a fire was truly behind them. Tears were silently dripping from her eyes. He was shocked that the water wasn't slowly draining the fires away. He knew it was a stupid thought but he thought it none the less. He smiled at her with more joy he'd ever felt. He was so happy, just to feel the same joy he felt all those years ago. To be able to hold her in his arms gave him so much pleasure he could not describe it.

He lifted one hand and wiped away her tears. They seemed to glow like diamonds in the sunlight. She smiled; he'd never seen something so beautiful. With that one action he could see she'd needed him as much as he'd yearned for her.

And as though like Kunkuro with his puppet they came together. Gaara's hand resting on her cheek still and Shigure's arms tightly wrapped around his neck.

He slid his free arm onto her back as she softly moved her face closer to his. And they kissed. Her soft sweet lips touching his and his moving along hers. Together it seemed like an eternity that their lips seemed to caress the others, neither seemed to want to part.

-------------------------------------

It was a long time she new but still she moved her lips away from his so unwillingly. Yet they held each other's gaze though with a bright pink line appeared across their cheeks.

It was just what they'd hoped; their first kiss was with each other. '_Crap I hope I didn't kill the moment, Shigure please stop yourself next time!' _Shigure screamed at herself suddenly unable to look out of his beautiful green eyes. She smiled and took his hand, like she used to so often before they had parted all those years ago.

She led him into the forest fingers entwined until she came to a stop below her usual branch. Wordlessly Gaara's sand lifted and took them up to it like to her branch like an elevator. Gaara sat in her usual seat and she lay in his arms.

For hours they talked, about everything they'd missed of all those years. Shigure told Gaara about her life, what she was doing in the Chuunin exam, how much she'd lived emotionless without him. She was so afraid that what she was saying would make him think she was crazy and run, but for 6 years she showed no emotion. Not when she killed, maimed or even seen her father in his grave, she felt like if she didn't do it now she would never show any emotion again, and the pain that hurt her so much so she had to take the small risk. She hoped he would understand as she told him this. But not once did he turn from her, discussed by her words like she'd thought he would, after all they both had a bleak outlook on emotions, and above all love.

Gaara told her about his life, his father, and what he'd done. The lives his taken and the lack of emotions doing so made him feel. He spoke with a monotone; his voice didn't show any of the pain he held through the years. But he was unaware as he spoke his face showed it all. What hurt him more though was that he wasn't repentant for what he'd done.

He was afraid that she would run off calling him a monster like most people would. But she lay there in his arms. And listened to his words as though they were sacred. When he was done, he looked away, unable to face her soft look.

'_I don't deserve this I don't deserve her. I deserve to find some place and kill and wait to be killed.'_ He couldn't bare it. He was about to stand and walk away from her, when her soft hands startled him, again. She'd moved to her knees in front of him. Facing him her hands clamped on his cheeks.

'_He doesn't deserve this!' _She cried to herself. "What you did, is what anyone would have done, what I've done." she spoke trying to make sure she used the right words, "you cannot blame yourself for living or for doing your job."

He kept his face turned away as though her soft gaze was a harsh glare. She used one soft hand to move his face towards her. He looked again into those fiery eyes. Expecting a punch or something but all he saw were tears spilling from the corners of her eyes.

"I always knew the p-pain you'd gone threw, though I tried to help you I n-never could stop it." she started to stutter as she chocked back tears as she stared into those shocked, unwavering light green eyes. "I'm so sorry I couldn't be there for you." she finished as her head dropped forward suddenly and started shaking in front of him, still trying to hold back the impossible.

Gently her put his arms around her and drew her close to him. She wrapped her hands around his neck again and wept on his shoulder. He smiled and he held her tight enough to calm her but without squeezing her uncomfortably.

This was all he ever wanted. For six years he waited for this moment were he would be with her again. Though of course she wasn't crying when he imagined it, now he was just so happy to be able to hold her again.

"It was never your fault, it was only you that ever stopped me from killing everybody I knew, my sister, my brother, everybody. You were always there for me, just like you said you would be." he smiled as he spoke. And gradually her breath started to calm down. "Please don't blame yourself, your all that's kept me sane, well as sane as someone like me could get." he smiled again as she relaxed in his arms.

They sat in Shigure's special tree for hours until the sun fell behind the horizon and the moon shone threw the gaps in the leaves. Gaara stood and helped Shigure up. Though hours they spent together they still felt as though they didn't spent enough time together.

Gaara's sand flew them back to Shigure's apartment. He took her to her window and she climbed in and helped Gaara in.

…………………..

They laid together on her large bed for the smallest time, Shigure in a really baggy bed shirt and short pants and Gaara in his long black pants, gourd, shirt and red and black coat on the floor next to the bed.

Gaara was scared, he though about it a lot as she sat in between his legs, her legs wrapped around his back. He felt a large stirring in his baggy black pants as she edged herself closer between his legs until her groin was against his. He tried to push the impulse from his mind. He'd never done what she was planning before, then again neither had Shigure but she was confident she could do it, so he let her. She sat in front of him and put her hands on his temples, she closed her eyes and she did his. She called up her chakra and strengthened the shield around Shikaku. She felt Shikaku fighting against her and sometimes even trying to attack her, that made it hard, but with the help of Gaara and doing the shields but she got it, eventually. She strengthened it so he couldn't posses Gaara's body, even through sleep, for at least 17 hours and when it began to loosen, if Gaara was asleep he would wake up, like a timer on an oven.

When she was done she removed her hands from his face. It was secure so he should be fine.

He opened his eyes to see her still in front of him, he'd feared that she might have disappeared or Shikaku had attacked her. He smiled and hugged her. But he felt surprisingly light headed as she dropped her head on his shoulder, still in the same position on his legs.

After ages of talking in Shigure's bed Shigure fell asleep. Her head on Gaara's chest and her arms tightly wrapped around him. He was so happy just watching her sleep. He rearranged her as he moved to lie on the pillows next to her. She had a comfortable big queen sized mattress. It was awfully comfortable all he wanted to do was sleep. '_I can't sleep what am I thinking id kill her!' _He thought angrily. But just as the though left his mind he remembered the shields she'd put up against Shikaku. '_I have to believe in her. She would have done it right... I have to trust her, and if I kill her, it was her own fault, no I believe in her abilities; she wouldn't have screwed this up. _He thought.

Her placed his hands in front of his and did the hand signs just to make sure. He uttered softy 'forced sleep jutsu' and fell asleep instantly.

…………………….

Shigure woke up the next morning with a smile on her face. '_My god, that was the most realistic dream of him I've had in years, such a pity to wake and have it gone. _She thought sadly as she wormed up closer to her blankets. She always bunched them along her side, like a person next to her. She sighed deeply as she opened her eyes, the sun momentarily blinding her. She closed her eyes and rubbed them.

She opened her eyes and saw she was lying on a body. _A good body,_ she thought with a smile. She had never woken up with a boy next to her, she was to anti social for that. First she lifted the covers and saw her legs complicatedly wrapped around the boy's legs. He rolled to his side, tightly pulling her body closer to his. She felt her chest brush against his. She looked up to his face, a faint pink glow on her cheeks. A large smile was on his sleeping form. And there he was, his red hair glistening beautifully in the sunlight. His dark bags under his eyes still their, his vivid red tattoo. She sighed and smiled as she brushed a lock of his hair away from his face.

A soft moan left his lips. She smiled to herself; '_no one would have touched him like that since me six years ago.' _She thought sadly as she placed her hand on his cheek. Almost instantaneously he pulled her even closer to him. He was millimetres away from her face. She swallowed; shed dreamt so much in the past years about being this close to him again. She moved herself as close as her body would allow until they were almost one being. She placed her head on his chest and fell asleep to the sound of his steady heartbeat and the slow rise and fall of his chest.

On the other side of Konoha Temari and Kunkuro searched madly from their lost sibling. "Kunkuro! You weren't meant to leave him! He was under your supervision!" Temari called to her brother

"Oh come on Temari! He was searching the city for that girl, do you have any idea how boring that is after an entire days searching?" he called back to his furious sister, trying to sound nice in fear of a beating. "Get the Hyuuga girl to check again." He continued to his sister as he slowed down five paces behind her.

"Girl. You are with us to help find our missing brother. If the hidden leaf village has harmed him it will be war between our villages. FIND HIM" she screamed to the quite girl with the violet eyes.

"Hai!" the shy girl cried as she but her hands in front of her to perform the 'Byakugan'. She called out as fearsomely as she could "Byakugan!" to try and make her look more confident than she was.

'_If Neji-nee-san were her I wouldn't have to do this, he is much more skilled with the Byakugan than I, oh!' _She cried in her mind as she searched the buildings around Konoha looking for the chakra of the fearsome red haired boy.

As she moved towards the middle of the village she saw briefly a red chakra, she jumped towards were she'd seen it, Temari and Kunkuro close at heal. Finally she reached the bottom of _her _apartment building. She looked nervously at the sand siblings behind her then upwards. In the room 2 floors beneath her room was Gaara, closely intertwined which a young kunoichi. She blushed a light pink and quietly told the sibling what she saw.

…………………

"What do you mean he is sleeping with a girl in there!? He can't sleep!" Temari screamed at the young Hyuuga "is he going crazy, killing things while he sleeps or something?" she cried again.

"No Temari-san he is sleeping, peacefully with a young Konoha ninja if im not mistaken." A bright pink line formed around Hinata's cheeks "and, umm t-they are… w-well, u-umm…"she stuttered as she spoke slowly glowing brighter red.

"Oh for gods sake! Tell us you stuttering fool!" Kunkuro called to the young girl.

The young girl winced at his words before continuing, "w-well, their Charka's are r-really close… T-there, sleeping awfully c-close to e-each other.' She finally managed to stutter out. By the end her entire face was glowing dark crimson.

Temari and Kunkuro seemed to figure out what she was saying and stood back a bit; a bright red streak glowed across their cheeks instantaneously. '_What the hell, he got to third base before me!' _Kunkuro screamed to himself, angry he hadn't made a move on the chick in the forest, or that pink haired chick.

Temari was the first to re-gain her composure. "Oh thank you very much Hinata-chan. you've saved us a lot of trouble, you are dismissed."

Hinata snapped to attention and saluted to Temari and Kunkuro and sprinted off on the roofs of the nearby houses.

'_My god that was embarrassing, oh the pressure if only Neji wasn't-' _she cut herself off as she though of her hospitalized cousin. Lost in thought she slipped off some water from the roof and slid down. Unable to realize what had happened, still thinking about her cousin she fell from the roof until she noticed what she was doing. She cried out as she started to fall the 5 stories off a hotel roof.

A strong and swift arm came around her waist and she was pulled to safety. She was again on a roof, but safe this time. She opened her eyes to see the blonde haired ninja he'd always admired and cared for deeply. He still had a firm grip around her waist and was standing right in front of her is a strong but gentle grip.

She swallowed as she looked into those beautify crafted blue eyes. "Hinata-chan, are you ok?" he asked as he placed his hand on her forehead to see if she was ok, her face was so red. "Are you ill? You wouldn't usually fall from a roof." He said sweetly, completely oblivious to the real reason she was so red,

"T-t-thank y-y-you n-n-Naruto k-k-kun' she spoke so quickly, trying to realize the words before she ran out of time. But just as she did finish her thanks, she ran out of time to do anything and fainted in his arms.

"HINATA!" he called, worried for her safety. He picked her up in a bridal style. He felt his face warm up as it always did when he was to close to Hinata, and tried to ignore the feeling as he carried he off to the hospital for Tsunade-sama to check her.

Temari watched the young kunoichi sprint off across the rooves before turning to her brother to discuss the situation of their other brother in the apartment above them.

"Well… what do you think?" she asked her brother.

Kunkuro looked up at his blonde sister still in shock, his cheeks still red. 'Gaara, our brother Gaara! Got to 3rd base before I did!' he called suddenly pissed off.

Temari's look changed from embarrassed to annoyed. "Our brother is _asleep _up their and all you can think of is sex?" she called as she hit her brother over the head with her giant fan. "That's it im going up to check on him myself." She cried as she opened her fan and summoned wind to fly her up to the window the Hyuuga girl had indicated to.

Together they lay, sleeping in each other's arms, so carefully and complicatedly intertwined. Shigure's baggy shirt lay limp around her shoulders. Gaara slipped his hand down her back in his sleep, pulling her shirt down so it _just_ covered her chest, she shoulders completely revealed, he slip it unknowably under her baggy black shirt and laid it to rest on top of her short shorts, on her ass. Any onlookers could have swear, with her bare shoulders, shirt invisible threw the covers, and Gaara laying shirtless next to her, that they lay their naked together.

Well it just so happens that a moment later Temari floated to the window of Shigure's apartment. Her hand quickly flying to her mouth at the site of her 'naked' brother and the girl she'd knocked unconscious during their flee from Konoha after the Chuunin exams. It was unmistakable, though her back faced the window, she could recognise the long silvery hair anyway. She knew that behind that hair, facing her little brother were those fiery red eyes, closed tight in the embrace of Gaara.

What really got her after the shock of seeing Gaara like this was the look on his face. He was smiling so much. For the first time she'd ever seen it wasn't a smile from murder. It was that he was truly happy for the first time she could ever recall. He was actually happy, lying here 'naked' with this girl.

She softly glided back to the ground and told Kunkuro what she saw.

"WHAT!!! HE GOT WITH THE HOT CHICK FROM THE FOREST!!! Ah man that sucks! He got to third base before me and with an awesomely hot chick too!!!" he cried before collapsing on the park bench across the road from the apartment building.

"So, Kunkuro," Temari said s she sat next to her brother, still annoyed that he cared more about his sex life than the fact of how happy Gaara was, "what do we do now?"

"Well that's obvious isn't it? We wait for Gaara to wake up, then we pay him out for the rest of his life." Kunkuro said with a smile.

"Well Kunkuro, you have a good point, oh wait, I think your forgetting something… oh that's right, you're talking about Gaara, and Shikaku. Hmm, nope lost it, have fun!" as she finished she slapped Kunkuro hard on the back. His face suddenly as pale as ever as a drop of sweat instantly ran down his face.

…………………….

Gaara opened his eyes to see nothing but bright silver hair spread out across the pillow in front of him. He smiled as he looked down to his chest were Shigure laid softly on his chest. He could see her smile clear as the sun outside. He softly stroked a long wave of hair off her face so he could see it better as she slept.

As his hand brushed her cheek her smile widened as she moved into the touch of his hand. A small sigh left her soft sweet lips closely followed by a soft passionate whisper of 'Gaara' before she snuggled further onto his chest so she was basically almost lying on him.

With the movement he felt her hips move against his loins. Again he felt a strong urge to softly wake her to have her in the way his body so desperately wanted to. But the thought of waking her from the slumber were she dreamt so sweetly of him seemed unimaginable. So he stroked her face again and just watched her sleep.

As he watched her he began to think, '_she is clearly dreaming of me, well she was, and her movements straight after…' _his face was suddenly straight as he though of it. He looked down again to the figure on his chest and blushed crimson. '_Oh god!' _He thought quickly after as he tried viciously to get himself back under control.

While trying to get himself under control without waking the sleeping form he didn't even notice her wake.

She sighed as she woke and looked up to Gaara's face first (well she wasn't going to look down again he-he-he). _Oh he is so HOT! _She cried to herself as she looked at the confused Gaara who seemed to be having an inner battle with himself. She had a fair idea about what it was about seeing she could feel in the bulged slowly growing between her hips. She smiled and closed her eyes before he noticed her so her plan could work.

After a wile he stoped the increase of his groin and looked back down to the sleeping girl he'd loved so much. '_Loved? Did I just think loved? No, no way, I love only myself that's the- OK who the hell am I kidding. Shit this sucks. No'-_ he was interrupted during his inner monologue by Shigure pushing herself up closer to his face. Her legs rubbed annoyingly/pleasantly at his groin.

As she made her way up his body he was disappointed to see as she moved her face wasn't facing him, couldn't see her. When shed done she lay next to him, no longer on his chest. He smiled softly as he looked at the part of her face he could see. She breathed in deeply and moved her head up to his, her fiery red eyes fixed on him.

He smiled at her beautiful face and she smiled back. She lifted a hand silently to his cheek and moved herself closer till her lips brushed against his. Briefly she looked into his eyes which were already half closed. She smiled even more and closed her eyes to move into the kiss.

Her soft loving kiss was so passionate, and each knew that the other wanted it. She felt him open his mouth as he pushed his lips to hers. She snaked her tongue into his mouth as he did the same. Both meeting in a soft kind of caress in each other's mouths. Her hand on his cheek snaked towards the back on his neck and pulled his face closer to hers.

He felt her move her fingers to the back of his head running threw his hair. He'd never experience something so sincere in his life. His hands pulled her from her back closer to him; only then realising they were both on her ass. Surprisingly she didn't mind, he felt her smile on his mouth and she moved with his touch to where he wanted her.

Her other hand was around his shoulder and resting on his toned body. On of his hands he slid free from its comfortable resting place and slid up her baggy shirt and rested on her naked back.

Being only 13both wordlessly decided that neither should go any further than a pleasant touch and passionate kissing. Not yet al least the both though silently.

They spent the remainder of the day like this after all by the time they were both awake it was 1pm and once they had finished making out it was 2 pm. They spent another hour of so resting in each other's arms and randomly making out.

"Holy crap!" Gaara cried as he sat bolt upright scaring Shigure out of her whits. "I'm sorry but I was supposed to be leaving today, at 8am this morning!" he said looking at the clock on the other side of the bed which read 5pm. he spun and looked at Shigure who was staring at him with a blank look on her face.

He bent towards her and softly placed his lips against hers. "What is wrong?" He asked so softly it broke her stiff look.

"You're leaving again for the village hidden in the sand. Im afraid it will be another six years before I see you again, even more if something happens to you." As she spoke her soft red eyes began to glisten. She looked away from his soft green eyes.

"Shigure, the treaty between Konoha and Suna has been rewritten. And im the most powerful ninja in my village. Not only that but I get a lot of free time because I don't usually get to many missions." He said with a smile and he lifted her face to meet his. "Ill see you again soon, I swear."

He leaned forward and kissed her as passionately as possible. With everything she feared and wanted she kissed him back with just as much passion.

Wen they broke apart Gaara looked sadly at his love. "I hate to find you again after such a long time then in a small time, loose you again. Even if ill see you again soon, it seems so hard."

She sat on her knees in front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She kissed him again briefly before adding in a somewhat hollow voice "Temari and Kunkuro will be searching for you. We best not leave them worry or they'll be another war." She spoke trying to make herself sound cheery but failed miserably.

He rose from his comfortable resting place and lifted Shigure with him wordlessly they went to their clothes and dressed. Gaara put on his black shirt and then his coat and closely followed by his gourd, which he tied to his chest plate. He turned to see Shigure coming out from her bathroom in her black boob tube and training shirt and this time wearing a short black and red skirt and her kunai and shrunken in a safe pouch at her legs and her Konoha ninja armband around her arm. Her long golden hair hung at her shoulders. She looked so hot, if its possible to look hotter than she already did.

She grinned with satisfaction at the look on his face. She walked up to him who quickly closed his jaw and looked her in the eyes. When she reached him her placed his arm around her waist again to kiss her before they left. '_I will never forget this, I will never forget you and finally I will see you again.' _He vowed to himself as he closed his eyes at the touch of her lips.

…………………………

For three years Shigure stayed a ninja in Konoha. But it wasn't like before, true she was still an excellent ninja, her ninja skills had improved dramatically but now she'd changed from the last time she'd seen Gaara. Now she seemed to be colder. Three years and she had barely seen him; during the three-year period she slowly grew this coldness, it seemed to grow like a weed slowly wrapping its self around her heart to prevent warmth to reach its core. The last time she had seen Gaara was a year ago, he hadn't come to visit her since and hasn't been able to sent mail.

With only seeing him rarely with out any time to spend together she grew colder with no one to show her the affection Gaara had. Now she actually seemed to enjoy the kill. She prided herself on how efficient of a ninja she was. And again her appearance had changed, now she looked allot different since Gaara had seen her last. Her long silver hair was still tied back in its usual plait though it now reached the base of her but. Her chest had gotten larger; she was almost as big as Hinata. She no longer wore her dark jeans and black boob tube, but a short gray and black-checkered skirt that ended just above her knees. Her shirt was replaced by another black boob tube that covered down to her hips, with sleeves that dipped over her arm but didn't hold the shirt up, they were more or less for decoration, her chest held the shirt up on its own. Over her shirt she wore a black leather coat. It was shorter than her skirt but ended between her knees and hips and inside carried all her scrolls, potions and her ANBU mask. The style fitted her body shape perfectly.

Her charka control had doubled ten-fold. Instead of her Kakai genkai enabling her to sense people and their charka, she could screw with their charka as well. She had become part of the ANBU Black ops early the previous year; she was one of the youngest in her squadron but easily kept pace with the older ANBU. What troubled her most about her new learned abilities though was the change in appearance. When she released a certain amount of charka her red eyes would change color, from fiery red to fiery blue. It seamed as though the fires behind her eyes increased to the burning unbearable blue flame and was almost unbearable to look into. Her canine teeth seemed slightly more pronounced constantly these days but only if you cared to look. Nonetheless the look suited her.

Today she walked along the main road of Konoha, a small traveling bag slung around her shoulder. Today she just wanted to focus her charka; she had a mission to guide a young man to the village hidden in the sand.

That was it; she was going with a one-man/woman squad to the village hidden in the sand. And when she arrived she had a day to waste courtesy of their Kazekage. But on this train of thought Shigure stared to think, "the last Kazekage that I remember, that lasted I might say, was Gaara's father, who could have replaced him?"She spoke out loud, lost in thought as she walked outside the gates of Konoha.

She walked to the first tree in the woods and jumped up to a sturdy branch and waited for the man she was to guard on their way to Suna.

As she waited she put her black ANBU cloak inside her traveling bag with her white and red cat mask in one of its pockets, to carry it around would just cause suspicion. She crossed her legs on the branch and opened her mind to absorb the morning relief that surrounded her. She sighed as she thought of what she would have to face when she saw Gaara again. This would be the first assignment she had been given in Suna in ages, since before she had seen Gaara last.

'He is bound to be either really busy to not have come back to Konoha. Or he is… no its Gaara, he is alive no doubt about it.' She thought confidently, how could such a thought go into her mind anyway? She rose from her seat and jumped to the ground. The young man she was to guard had just walked threw the city gates.

Once she explained the basic foolproof procedure they were going to use to get to Suna to her 'client', as it were. She turned to leave Konoha but just before she did she took one final look at her home as she always did.

She continued into the forest with the man she was to guard. She never bothered to learn any of her clients names it caused too much attachment, so she stuck with calling him 'old man.' True he was only 5 years her elder but this way was easier.

What puzzled her the most was that one ANBU black ops was sent to guard this man. The mission briefing said it was a simple escorting mission, but why would they send an ANBU? Tsunade was kind of drunk, that may have helped her decision, but still ANBU always traveled in squads of 3-4, sometimes more. This way was more her style but it was still unheard of. Secondly ANBU mostly operate in S-A and sometimes B ranked missions and this mission from the briefing was just a C or a D ranked mission, Tsunade said it herself. Again she was tipsy but the only logical explanation would have to be the Chuunin exams. The majority of the Gennin were training, the Jonnin were making preparations along with the Chuunin. Only the ANBU, the elite had nothing to. And because of the low level of the mission it explains why only she was asked to do it. 'Well that explains it I guess' she thought as she disappeared threw the bulk of the Konoha forest.

She spent the next two days walking with the 22 year old man. It was a quiet trip; the only conversation was when the man would continually try to flirt with her at least 5 times per day. By the end of the second day traveling she turned abruptly and punched him in the mouth.

He landed with a soft thud on the hot sand that they'd been traveling on for the past 2 hours. "Hey what was that for gorgeous?" he called after her as she walked away in him annoying strong prudent accent, as he sat on the sand and wiped the blood from his lip. "Your supposed to protect me, not hit me!" he cried after her figure, which was slowly getting further and further away. He got to his shaky feet and started to follow her again with a dirty scowl.

"Im here to protect you from ninja's who want to kill you, I just want to hurt you." She called to him with a sly smile and her usual sweet, mocking and cunning voice. He scowled further and followed her threw the vast dry desert they were now crossing.

As he walked he watched her long silver plat, slide out from it's binding's. It blew so softly in the deserts breeze, so soft, it just seemed to dance in the winds. He found himself wondering how she could have such a heart to bind such playful hair.

By midday on the third day of travel they reached Suna. Shigure accompanied the man to his house and bade him a stiff farewell and left to find the hotel she was to stay at until tomorrow.

She found the place easy, as she would have when she was young growing up in this city. It was such a relief to be back there.

When she finally reached the hotel she was greeted with the soft sweet, intoxicating smell of butternut. She was lead but a pudgy kind of woman with plain brown hair and plain brown eyes, she seemed to remember Shigure and refused to look her in the eye as she lead her to her room. She was shocked to see the room the Kazekage had hired out for her, it was without a doubt the most beautiful, graceful thing she'd ever seen. First thing she noticed was the large king sized bed that was off to the size of her room, it was massive. A thin insect net was softly placed around all the edges except the one closest to the door. The one that was opened was enticing her to go straight to it and jump on the bed just to get rid of the composed look. Using her ninja skills she removed her eyes from the bed, which she now noticed to had a thin gold thread intertwined to nearly every part of the bed, and turned to the anxious obviously scarred woman. She was shorter than Shigure, and rounder than her but she couldn't understand why she was so afraid. She decided to dismiss it; she was now used to fear and tipped the girl her age. When she looked up at Shigure for the proper honorifics Shigure finally realized why she looked so familiar. The girl who had bullied herself and Gaara when she was younger now stood quivering in front of her. She turned her 'supposedly nice' gaze into a harsh stare as the girl ran from her room. She smiled to herself and explored her gorgeous room.

She walked around the room and found her bathroom and again her mouth fell agape. It was just as beautiful as her bed. She couldn't help but admire the carefully decorated room. Her bath was big enough two fit a large man in width and at least two in depth. It was a plain white concrete bath but along the ridges a gold plate ran along it, the design was of beautiful water lilies, clearly made in the land of waves. She smiled as she ran her fingers along the fine grade gold before she turned to take in the rest of the bathroom.

The sink was of exact design to the bath and the tiles were two, though they were white with an extremely thin silver lining to each tile. Basically all of the room was the same, gold or silver plated rimmed and white stone.

She briefly swept the rest of her hotel room in a hurry. Once she had looked at it all she ran back to her bathroom and stripped. She turned the hot and cold water on to create the right temperature before she swept herself into its warmth. Her softly tanned and toned body quickly and gracefully stepped into the bath. Something no one except her ever saw was now clearly visible, her red and blue ball of flame. She had it tattooed onto her hip as soon as she was of age. It started blue at its base and as it reached the top it turned into a red tipped flame, the tattooist she used had expert chakra control and added an amount of chakra that he was using into the ink to create the effect of real flames. Before she slipped under its depths she added a large amount of bubble bath and then sunk deep below the waters surface.

As millions of bubbles floated around her bathroom she laid at the bottom and she slid her slender fingers threw her long and luxuriously soft hair. All the sand from the days of traveling slid from her slender form to the bottom of the bath. For ages she held her breath under the water until it hurt her lungs to do so any longer, so she let go of the bottom and swiftly floated to the top of the water. She stood in the bath and performed a few quick hand signals she had learnt when she was a girl in Suna and summoned the sand from the bottom and out of the bathtub and quickly tried to sink back under the water, when she was distracted by a load cry from outside her window.

She wrapped a towel around her and walked to the window to see a large amount of ninja's in the street bellow. Shigure shrugged, "probably just a drunken bar fight." She thought irritably as she made her way back to her tub.

She sat in that water for a short amount of time before a load knocking interrupted her again. She moaned "for god's sake! Why tonight?" she cried to herself as she dried herself with the towel and slipped on a sliver nightdress and then wrapped a silver nightgown around her. She walked to her hotel door and opened it to see a young man, around 20 at the door dressed in a full sand ninja outfit.

"May I help you sir?" she asked irritably as she leaned against the doorway to show her impatience.

"Ma'am, its I who wish to help you." When she gave him a blank annoyed stare he continued. "You are recuperating from a journey so you are not needed to help, but we need to evacuate villagers. We are under attack and our Kazekage is fighting an Akatsuki member at this moment. It's escalating so we need to evacuate all villagers." He finished looking even more anxious.

She stood straight at the news, "hai sir, I shall dress and go with-"

"Im sorry ma'am" he interrupted her rudely "but there is no time, you must come with me now" he added as he stepped aside to usher her out of the room.

Reluctantly she nodded and walked out the door. As they walked down the crowded corridor she herd a young kid call to his mother with tears in his eyes, "but what about Kazekage-sama? Is he ok?" A sweet smile played upon his mothers lips, "Kazekage-sama is the strongest in the village, he will protect us at all costs, but he knows we need him so he will protect himself too!" she said as she lifted her child into her arms and continued to walk away with the crowd.

Once Shigure and her escort were out of the building she turned to him, "who is the new Kazekage?" she asked, the question had been bugging her for some time now. Her escort pointed to the sky were she was horrified to see what she saw. A large white origami owl was in combat with a large rapidly moving amounts of sand, which were being controlled by a sand sphere, were she could just make out the outline of vivid red hair in a gap in the sphere. A massive sand wall was covering the majority of the city; she only saw this because her hotel was on the outskirts so she could still see the fight as she moved. She was horrified because she saw Gaara in his half formed impenetrable defense. She saw the Kazekage of the Village Hidden in the Sand fighting an Akatsuki member, she saw her love protecting his village, protecting her, and finally being excepted who exactly who he was. Tears stung her eyes when she saw this "Gaara-sama" she vaguely her escort say before grabbing her elbow and leading her to the civilians.

She continued to watch the fight, as she was slowly led to the center of the village. Gaara narrowly avoided a bomb by summoning his Shikaku infested sand to replace the sand that was missing from his sphere, she'd gathered he had used some of his sand to make the normal desert sand go faster but now his barrier was complete. She let herself relax 'he's a lot faster since last time I saw him' she thought with a smirk. As she watched the sphere something happened, the area of the sphere seemed to expand suddenly with lumps as though something exploded from inside. She stopped dead in her tracks as the sand around him started to fall to the ground. "No" she whispered as she shook her head. Last time she saw his impenetrable sphere slink down like that Sasuke had electrocuted him and left him wounded and bleeding. From the air his sand just fell down to the sand covering the majority of the village until all that was there was the clear from of Gaara, covered in his own sand floating there in the sand. The Akatsuki person on the white owl started to fly towards Gaara, sand ninja's everywhere started to sprint along the sand to get to their Kazekage, to aid him, to help him get away form the Akatsuki member. Her escort joined the ninja to get Gaara, but just as he leapt into the air and Shigure went to go after him the sand began to move. The sand protecting the village slowly moved across the village. Gaara was using the last of his strength to make sure that the sand didn't crush the village. "No, you cant do this Gaara, please I cant do anything without you!" she cried to the air above her were Gaara was slowly sliding down in the air, slowly towards the ground.

Shigure looked around to see everyone watching the sand move across the village towards the vast expanse of desert were it couldn't crush anyone. Everyone had their eyes on the sand, but only the ninja watched helplessly at Gaara.

He pushed the last of the sand over the borders of the village and dropped it. An almighty cheer went up around the village. He began to fall. Slowly at first gathering speed quickly though. The Akatsuki person started his assault again, after having stopped to let Gaara save the villagers, he swooped at Gaara as he fell. " NO!" Shigure let out an almightily cry as she leapt onto the nearest building and tried to focus her chakra to form a net around him. She looked up at him; his soft green eyes met hers in a week smile. Tears sprung to her eyes as she watched her love fall. "No" she whispered again when she realized she lost her focus, her net failed before she could even put it around him. Again she tried using hand signals she'd learnt to help the technique but she screwed that up to. She fell to her knees when the blonde ninja in the black cloak with the red clouds swept in so his bird caught Gaara with its tail feathers.

At the distance between the two Shigure wasn't actually sure if this 'man' was a man or a woman but then the thought struck her 'he's taking him away. He is taking his body away!' she cried as she sprinted along the rooftops after the white bird and the near dead Gaara. Kunkuro started to run along the parallel rooftops after his brother. He jumped in front of Shigure and sent her flying against a wall. She went headfirst and blacked out. She woke up moments later with blood falling from her forehead. She turned and saw Kunkuro and a squad, enter the city exit/entry. She jumped to her feet again, her long silver nightgown trailing furiously at her ankles as she started after Kunkuro and Gaara.

She quickly reached the crevice that was the gates of entry/exit of the city when she saw a paper note explode. She had just entered the small area when the exploding note exploded. She was sent flying against the nearest wall. A rounded rock a little bit bigger than her head hit her in the same place were Kunkuro had hit her, blood running crimson red instantly dripped from her head, gushing down making her instantly woozy. She had only a moment to take in the injury when a pointed rock when flying after her. It impaled her to the stonewall behind her.

Everything in her vision seemed to be tinted white as she felt the cold stone pierce her skin. She looked down to see a large spiked chunk of rock producing from her ribs, right at her heart. The whiteness around her vision seemed to become more pronounced until all she could see was white. A dull throbbing was all the pain the rock had left her with. She her someone whisper next to her "my god she's dying, it's a civilian" the rest of the ninja's words were cut off by her own.

"T-tell Gaara, I Love him. I a-always have a-and always w-will." As she spoke she felt the coldness of the stone spread threw her body like a cold shower. "t-t-t-ell h-h-im" she whispered.

"Aright ma'am, please medical nin's are on their way, please hold on!" he called to her knowing she could barely her anything.

"T-there's n-n-no p-p-point w-w-without h-him" she whispered as tears fell down her pale skin. She briefly opened the eyes she could no longer see threw. If Gaara was alive and came back he would no the message came from the girl with the fires in her eyes, he would know she loved him.

The only warmth she could feel was the warm blood pouring down her torso to her legs, but even that sensation seemed to fade. "You're the girl!" She herd in a barely audible whisper, "the Kazekage's 'fire within'" the ninja spoke just those words and made her day, her last day. She smiled as she felt all sensation drip away 'His fire within. I know the true you, I know the true Gaara.' She thought as she inhaled her shuddering last breath.

After a period when the pain had stopped and left her with just numbness, she was barely conscious of everything, just the soft breeze around her and the sensation of floating. Shigure was stumped; she had never felt like this before. The pleasantness of it made her stay there, her eyes closed drifting in an unknown space, were she knew not were she was nor how long she laid there, or stood there, again she could not tell. A small tingling started in her fingertips and made it's way up to her arm. Again a pleasant feeling but she decided to open her eyes to absorb her surroundings.

She found herself drifting in no particular direction to nowhere in a plain black space. She did not stand, she did not sit, and she just floated around fascinated. Briefly an image would flicker past her vision. Sometimes the image she could see would be far off but they seemed somehow familiar. Until one in particular came in front of her. It was just a shimmer that seemed to move threw the wind and dissolve, like in a pond when you can see the moon, but the reflection gets easily wiped away by a gentle breeze. Though it didn't seem to come back.

She saw Gaara standing there facing the image smiling at her with his arms out stretched, like he was caressing the image. Then before she could pinpoint why it was so familiar it withered away. She watched again intrigued by this display that reminded her of a dance. In the darkness the images seemed to dance and glitter around her before she could see them properly again one came up before her and she noticed it. Again it was Gaara, looking around at the shimmer with him arm out stretched holding a hand, the body she couldn't see. But the joy on his face lit hers with a smile, a true smile she hadn't felt in a very long time. These were her memories. All of Gaara she noticed when it flickered and she saw another in the distance.

Soft words escaped her mouth without her thought, like it wasn't even her controlling her mouth but I moved and spoke. "Even threw death the memories of love remain strong in out hearts on this plane and the other. The love remains, in your heart and in his. You may choose to stay here and reminisce, or you can go on and wait for him there." Shigure wasn't sure why her mouth said these words but she knew them to be true. She wasn't quite sure were the voice was telling her to go but she assumed it was a kind of heaven.

With her own voice she asked, "Can I say goodbye?" just those simple words bought tears to her eyes. It actually hit her that she was dead. It didn't scare or hurt her that she wouldn't see her sister or mother again, it didn't joy her that she would see her father again, it hurt her to leave Gaara to face it all alone.

The thought that the voice would answer her no and Gaara would think she left him deliberately. She curled into a ball and wept.

She opened her eyes to another memory. It was of her leaving Gaara when they were younger. The first time she let him alone. Again she wept even more, her crystal tears floated around her. She herd herself call back to Gaara, 'please, never forget me Gaara!!! I love you!!!' she smiled at her foolish little quote, but even as she thought of it there was nothing better to say at the time.

She watched him fumble after she used her chakra to send her spirit using she Kakai Genkai of her face and kiss him on the cheek. He found her as kissed her on the forehead. She didn't see this before; she was to far away to see it. But now she stood in front of the boy she fell in love with at the age of 7 in wonder. He lifted his hand to his cheek were she had kissed him and smiled the most genuine smile she had ever seen. No longer was he bothered by the taunts by the villagers, or the pain of Shikaku on his mind but genuine happiness. He smiled "Shigure, I love you so much, you will never know how much you mean to me, threw life and death, I will love you, from now and forever." Such deep words just came from a 7 year old. Her heart seemed to swell up inside her; all her worries were washed away with that single phrase.

The image drifted from her eyes to be replaced by another much more disturbing one. The current Gaara was held around the waist by a whit owl, the Akatsuki's bird. Gaara's face was contorted with pain and his sand shield was badly cracked around his face and slowly dripping down to the sand below him.

Her heart broke. This was the current Gaara, right now, dying before her. "Gaara," she whispered as she watched blood trickle down his mouth over the dried blood.

Feebly he opened an eye, "Shigure, is that…." With a gasp and sigh he cut off his sentence.

She jumped forward, in the dark space around her it was an awkward motion but it got her closer to the image. "Please don't waste your energy, just listen," she spoke clearly and softly to the image before her. She saw his face crack more when he smiled at her voice before grimacing in pain. "I wanted you to know, I love you so much, and because of the circumstances you will never know how much. You mean the world to me and threw both life and death, I will always love you with my entire heart, for now and forever." As she spoke her voice cracked with tears.

His smile still partly in place increase, despite the blood trickling down his cracked lips he spoke again "I love you to, I always… have, and always will" he finished as he relaxed his body and closed his eyes, all that showed he still lived was his gentle, abnormally slow breathing.

She closed her red eyes and concentrated, she felt her chakra deep inside her, but slowly loosing the contact with her abilities she concentrated her chakra to her eyes and focused her Kakai Genkai she snapped her eyes open as the picture began to fade around the sides in front of her.

Her usual red fiery eyes shone a fiery and dangerous blue more bright than ever before. She mustered with an unusual amount of effort the same kind of sending that she used when she was younger, she focused her spirit/charka towards the image and pushed it threw until she was floating, nothing but an invisible body, alongside Gaara.

She looked around to see the world she stood in slowly fading away like the image in front of her body. She quickly turned to Gaara and placed her hands on his cheeks. She leaned in, the world around her only composing of Gaara, herself and a little bit of the bird that carried him, and placed her soft lips upon his for the last time on this world. His soft lips caressed hers, she could feel beneath his lips the tremor of pain but he held his lips to hers still. She closed her eyes for the kiss as a trickle of blood dripped from his lips onto her, when nothing but there upper bodies were visible when she reopened her eyes she spoke in his ear, aware of her time running out, "I love you." He opened his eyes to meet hers; though he could not see hers he knew she could see his. She closed her eyes again, the feeling of his cracked hand upon her wet cheek before she disappeared from his world.

When she opened her eyes the image of Gaara had gone, but the blood on her lips remained. She didn't wipe it away as she drifted backwards towards a light she was all too afraid to look at. She knew she would wait for the time when she could once again be with her one true love. She floated her arms around her, wrapped in the memory of his touch, of his face, of his voice, and especially his loving kiss.

* * *

_AN/ OK i know this went on forever and if you readin this now, well you liked it enough to keep reading and i thank you :)_


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